TV & VIDEO - Aug. 18, 1987

Tradition does not die easily in England, where for the first time British television viewers are getting what TV addicts in other countries have had for years--24-hour programming. British TV traditionally went off the air at midnight during the week, but at 12:30 a.m. this morning ITV was scheduled to introduce round-the-clock programming with a melange of old U.S. TV shows and local sports and news. The first-nighters could watch “I Spy,” circa 1960; “Taxi” and the 1945 film “The Picture of Dorian Gray” starring George Sanders. Those diehards still awake at 5 a.m. could tune into “Donahue”--described by the network as “a new series of chat shows from America.”